THEATER REVIEW

THEATER REVIEW; No Wonder the Brothers Wanted Wings

By ANITA GATES

Published: November 25, 1997

It's a miracle that airplanes were ever invented, considering what a dysfunctional family Orville and Wilbur Wright apparently grew up in. Actually, Arthur Giron, who tells their story in his comic drama ''Flight,'' doesn't claim that it happened exactly this way; he has just taken five real-life characters and some basic biographical facts and supposed.

This results in a witty, touching flashback to the Wright brothers' boyhood and the events that led to those momentous first flights in Kitty Hawk.

Tall, dark and handsome Dad (Daniel Ahearn), a circuit preacher for the United Brethren Church, is never around. When he does put in an appearance, he forcefully delivers his messages of 19th-century sexism (''Only women worry about their families'') and conflicting world views. One minute he's advising his sons, ''Follow in my footsteps and change the world!'' The next, he's refusing a sled as a Christmas gift because it's ''a pagan thing'' and ''we never sin against nature'' (as in ''If God had meant men to fly, he would have given them wings'').

Mom (Suzanna Hay) is a sickly, long-suffering faded beauty who speaks to her sons in proverbs and likes to add import to everyday sentiments (as in ''Moses never said no to his mother'').

Wilbur (Michael Louis Wells) and Orville (Thomas McHugh) are portrayed as boys whose mischief is just a sign of their frustrated brilliance.

When a taxidermist moves to town, they get hold of his animals and put them on wheels. Both actors do great deadpan humor.

Even Otto Lilienthal (Brad Bellamy), the German aviation pioneer, has a comic presence. He sums up his reaction to the myth of the boy who flew on birds' wings too close to the sun with ''Icarus was stupid.''

The second act of ''Flight'' turns sentimental, but the play, which is at Ensemble Studio Theater through Sunday, is beautifully directed throughout by Jamie Richards, and there is poignancy between the laughs. Lilienthal has the most resonant line of the play. ''If such a flying machine could be invented,'' he theorizes, ''there would never be war again.''